The final ISO file was just 450mb , lol. Used VirtualBox to check the integrity of my copy and everything ran fine with irritating Activation popups.

Well it works well in the Virtual simulation but just wanted to ask if what I had done is fine. Just asked cause I read here in the forums while browsing that using integrators again and again may cause problems.

Well, it depends on how you plan on going about adding software to it. If you're going to be using "true" addons, then you should probably be adding those before doing the nLite thing. If you're just adding silent installers, multimode installers, or whatever, then you're fine so far.

When you read about staying away from integrating more than once, what people are talking about is integrating an update pack on top of a previous update pack. That can cause issues. Or integrating an update pack on top of an nLited source. You always want to start with a fresh source, slipstream service packs if necessary, then integrate a single update pack. After that, feel free to go to town with it. As a general rule of thumb, if you're integrating DriverPacks, you'll want to heed caution before integrating anything else after they have been integrated. In other words, finish it off with DriverPacks.

Another small question.
If I remove any component in the component remove section of nlite and I realise later that I may need it after installing Windows is it possible to install them using the Original CD within which it is present ?

Also I presume it is safe to remove all the drivers present in the Windows XP CD as all new components come with their Driver CD if needed

Another small question.
If I remove any component in the component remove section of nlite and I realise later that I may need it after installing Windows is it possible to install them using the Original CD within which it is present ?

Also I presume it is safe to remove all the drivers present in the Windows XP CD as all new components come with their Driver CD if needed

If you remove a component from the XP install, then no you will not be able to reinstall it using an original XP disk. When you "remove" the component, you do exactly that, you remove it and all of the install's knowledge of ever having that component. The *only* exceptions to this rule are those components that can be installed with a separate installer from the Windows installer.

An answer to your second question depends on what you consider "safe". If you remove *all* drivers, you will likely not be able to install Windows *at all*. The drivers on the CD include generic drivers just to even get things like HDD and graphics support for the install. Also, removing some drivers can cause programs installed later that *require* that support to completely fail. So in general, it is not a good idea to remove a lot of drivers from the XP install.

A mind is like a parachute, it only functions when it is open.
--Anonymous

what did you removed to "trim down" the XP disc to 490mb? if you keep everything in, the final ISO is usually around 800mb... get rid of .net 2.0 through 4.0, the winmfc crap (has powershell, etc), and bit locker... you can be just right around 700mb... barely enough room to add windows defender (if you wanted), and be able to over burn the disc at 712mb

I personally prefer to keep all the standard issue "junk" (from original cd) in to avoid installation/compatibility issues that nlite sometimes causes.... it already takes enough time to build a disc, then test installing it to make sure it all works

The CD-Key issue seems to be related to slipstreaming SP3 into XP on a Vista-based or Win7-based host. If you have access to an XP machine, do your ISO work on it instead of machines with newer OSes. Or use an XP client on a virtual machine to slipstream SP3 into your source.

I don't test XPx86 often enough to say with authority whether nLite or RVMi works better with OnePiece's releases.

But I can tell you that nLite removals and tweaks should come after adding an update pack, regardless of the tool used. And for consistent results, nLite should only be run once on any given source, with the exception of using nLite only to create an ISO at the very end.

Until I see or hear for myself from OnePiece or nonno fabio directly, I will not speculate on the fate of their work.

IMO ..it would be REALLY helpful if someone here would start a new thread regarding this & make it a sticky. This way ...others that are having problems, can see what various successful Intregration methods have been used by RyanVM members & would prevent alot of on-going redundant questions.